This Week at Interior February 23, 2024

Transcript:

Hi, I’m Scott Teodorski, Superintendent at Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site, and you’re watching This Week at Interior!

This Week at Interior

Monday, February 19th, marked the official Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II, commemorating the unjust, forced relocation and confinement of more than 125,000 Japanese Americans between 1942 and 1945. Secretary Haaland this week formally designated the Amache National Historic Site in Colorado -- it was one of 10 incarceration sites established by the War Relocation Authority to detain Japanese Americans forcibly removed from the West Coast of the United States.  

Secretary Haaland traveled to Virginia this week to commemorate Black History Month and reinforce Interior's commitment to honoring the legacy and achievements of African Americans. She toured Hampton University and learned about their progress to implement a $750,000 grant from the National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities program. She also visited two sites stewarded by NPS: the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site and Fort Monroe National Monument. Maggie Lena Walker devoted her life to civil rights advancement, economic empowerment, and educational opportunities for Jim Crow-era African Americans and women. Fort Monroe National Monument, the site of the first arrival of enslaved Africans in English North America in 1619, was also a safe haven for freedom seekers during the American Civil War.  

While in Virginia, Secretary Haaland hosted a listening session with leaders from the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, Chickahominy Indian Tribe – Eastern Division, Monacan Indian Nation, Nansemond Indian Nation, Pamunkey Indian Tribe, Rappahannock Tribe, and Upper Mattaponi Tribe. President Biden’s Investing in America agenda has made historic investments in Indigenous communities in Virginia and across the country. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is investing more than $13 billion directly into Tribal communities, including critical funding to repair roads, bridges and rails, expand access to clean drinking water, and advance environmental justice.  

Secretary Haaland also traveled to Ohio this week, where she announced more than $46 million from the Investing in America agenda through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to address dangerous and polluting abandoned mines, create good-paying jobs and catalyze economic opportunity. She hosted a roundtable with local labor leaders and community members to discuss the Department's implementation of funding provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which allocates a total of $16 billion to address legacy pollution, including $11.3 billion in abandoned mine land funding over 15 years.

Interior this week announced a $50.5 million investment through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to put people to work plugging, remediating and reclaiming orphaned oil and gas wells located in national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and on other public lands and waters. Five bureaus within the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture will address 123 high-priority polluting wells that pose threats to human health and safety, the climate and wildlife.  

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland traveled to Arizona this week following the announcement of a $10 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to upgrade and modernize Bureau of Indian Affairs-owned irrigation projects and power utilities serving Tribal communities. While there, he joined White House Intergovernmental Affairs Director Tom Perez at the Ak-Chin Indian Community to highlight historic funding from the President’s Investing in America agenda for Indian Water Rights Settlements and high-speed affordable internet. And he toured the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation and met with Indigenous servicemembers in the Phoenix area.

Secretary Haaland, Director Perez, Acting Deputy Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis and Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs Carmen Cantor welcomed the elected leaders of Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to the annual Interagency Group on Insular Areas this week. In her remarks, the Secretary highlighted the historic investments in climate resilience, ecosystem restoration and infrastructure improvements in the territories, thanks to the Investing in American agenda.

And our social media Picture of the Week, a moment of awe at California's Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park. This dramatic landscape testifies to nature's beauty and diversity, and her sheer size — huge mountains, rugged foothills, deep canyons, vast caverns and the world's largest trees.

Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

That's This Week at Interior.

 

This Week: The Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II is marked by the formal designation of the Amache National Historic Site in Colorado; Secretary Haaland travels to Virginia to commemorate Black History Month and host a listening session with leaders from seven Virginia Tribes; Department leaders visit Ohio to announce more than $46 million to clean up abandoned coal mines and boost economic opportunity; more than $50 million from President Biden's Investing in America agenda will plug and remediate orphaned oil and gas wells on federal lands; there's a $10 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to upgrade and modernize irrigation projects and power utilities serving Tribal communities; leaders from U.S. island territories convene in Washington, D.C. for the annual Interagency Group on Insular Areas; and we head for the tallest trees to find our social media Picture of the Week!

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    04/11/2025

    This Week at Interior April 11, 2025

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    This Week at Interior

    President Trump this week signed Executive Orders aimed at achieving the Administration's goal of American Energy Dominance with a renewed focus on coal. One of the orders directs Interior to identify untapped coal resources on federal lands, while removing barriers to mining and leasing.

    The value of untapped coal in our country is one hundred times greater than the value of all the gold at Fort Knox, and we're going to unleash it and make America rich and powerful again.

    To advance the President Trump's order, Interior will implement a series of policy moves and regulatory reforms to position coal as a cornerstone of the nation’s energy strategy by ensuring federally managed lands remain open and accessible for responsible energy development. Secretary Burgum likened the actions to creating a new Golden Age of "Mine, Baby, Mine," saying that  

    Interior is unlocking America’s full potential in energy dominance and economic development to make life more affordable for every American family while showing the world the power of America’s natural resources and innovation.  

    Among the actions are ending the moratorium on federal coal leasing, reopening federal lands in Montana and Wyoming to coal leasing, removing regulatory burdens for coal mines, and providing royalty rate relief.  

    Interior this week announced the disbursement of more than $13 million in grants to support the reclamation of abandoned mine lands, furthering the Trump administration’s commitment to American Energy Dominance, environmental stewardship and economic renewal in coal communities. The funding is administered through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and it will support job creation and economic revitalization efforts in North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas.  

    Interior this week announced the release of updated oil and gas reserve estimates for the Gulf of America's Outer Continental Shelf. The new data and analysis over the last couple of years reveal an additional 1.3 billion barrels of oil equivalent since 2021, bringing the total reserve estimate to 7.04 billion barrels of oil equivalent. That figure includes 5.77 billion barrels of oil and 7.15 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced plans to significantly increase oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf, and just last week Secretary Burgum directed the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to hold the first Gulf of America oil and gas lease sale since its renaming in February.

    Secretary Burgum held his first All Hands meeting this week at Interior's historic Yates Auditorium. The Secretary saluted the notable accomplishments the Department has achieved in making the transition from the previous administration, and expanded on his vision that innovation, rather than regulation, is the cornerstone of American prosperity.

    The thing that has led our country for 250 years is innovation, doesn't matter whether it's the Agricultural Revolution, the Industrial Revolution our ability to innovate in a way that allowed us to win World War One and World War II and lead the world and become the world leader, all of it was innovation based, and we have to get back to those roots. That's how we win. That's how America wins in this world, that's how we win again for our children and our children's children, is we win with innovation.

    U.S. Geological Survey crews were deployed late last week and this week to monitor flood impacts after storms dumped heavy rain across portions of the southeast and Midwest. Crews are still hard at work gathering flood measurements in Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois and Ohio, as well as West Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, where as much as ten inches of rain fell causing massive flooding. The gages provide information for the National Weather Service to predict when dangerous flooding might occur and allow for warnings to vulnerable residents, as flood crests will continue into early May.

    And our social media Picture of the Week, California's Battery Point Lighthouse. Perched on California's rugged northern coast, this historic beacon stands among the rocky outcrops of the California Coastal National Monument and has guided mariners since its first lighting in 1856.

    Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X! That's This Week at Interior!


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    News and headlines from Interior April 11, 2025

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